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For many people, the internet can be a gift and a curse. One terrible review can destroy someone’s business while a tiny hole-in-the-wall, in the middle of town somewhere, can become a gold mine because of a simple search. Word of mouth still exists but these days it spreads faster than cute cats, missed Football field goals or an egg post on Instagram that gets almost 50 million “likes” in 24 hours.

For many, managing an Instagram account can be challenging and frustrating when you’re spending more time managing the day-to-day operations of your trade or your results from your posts have been underwhelming.

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If you’re running a small business it can be almost impossible to manage social media accounts to gain awareness and grow your business, all at the same time. But Instagram is not something to be ignored. It’s not only a bunch of Millenials posting selfies, food pictures and sharing “memes” because in June 2018 Instagram hit 1 billion active monthly users.

That number is proof that It’s worth to add a Social Media Manager to your payroll. Even if the manager is a part-time student, with little experience, they can help you take a lot off the plate by posting quality photos and videos, attracting new followers and building on a brand identity.

Geo-tagging and Hashtagging

Now that you’ve got your new manager, it doesn’t mean you’re totally off the hook. Lot’s of small business owners will say that the service or business they provide is irrelevant for Instagram because they’re local or it might not appeal to young consumers.

Even if your target market is in the older range, those numbers are still in the millions. Now, that’s just a perspective. So how does this help your local business? Geo-tagging lets customers know where you’re located. It lets them know you’re near and brings your business awareness. If Im looking for a printing service or contractor, seeing your work online and an “identity” will help me compare, discover and make a more confident decision.

Hashtags also bring more awareness to your business. If im looking for a packaging service, I can search for a business on Instagram it can help me find your business, especially with the combination of geotags and hashtags.. Usually, hashtags should go after a good caption and while Instagram allows up to 30, I personally recommend putting 5 relevant tags about your post or business.

Engagement

Just as if you would engage with your customers in person, face to face. It’s just as important to do so on your profile. Engage by being active in the comment section, collaborate with other relevant business where both can benefit off of eachother. You can also create community events and drive awareness. Ask if you can follow your customers on Instagram and send a Happy Birthday card, or tell them to enjoy their new Cat. Whatever life event they share, make sure you’re there for the support. Word of mouth is still very much alive and well and in today’s world, it’s amplified on Instagram. The little things count and go a very long way. Don’t focus on how much “followers” your account has, it’s more important that whatever number it is, those followers are or can turn into real customers.

Written By: Avi Milman

Marketing plays an important role in establishing relationships between customers and businesses. Marketing also helps maximize profit and exposure of a company. But however, if done incorrectly it can have an opposite effect!

1) Failing to set goals

For digital marketing-the rule of thumb is to be ROI focused. But is also very important to be goal orientated. Failure to set goals could be a way to ensure the failure of a campaign. Decide what you want your marketing campaign to achieve-set goals and timelines. However, it is important to keep in mind that setting goals may seem easy-but it is important to be as precise, measurable, realistic and attainable…as possible.

Bottom Line:

Having clear set goals help you monitor benchmarks along the way and identify if changes need to be made.

2) Lack of Research

Market research and testing are crucial because they can determine the performance of each of your marketing efforts. They take the guesswork out of what your potential customer wants from you. With proper research and testing you can figure out what audience demographic does your company appeal most to and how you should position your product.

Bottom Line: Research helps you learn more about your customer and the right ways you can market your products to build brand awareness.

3) Failing to Capture Repeat Customers

Customer retention is an important marketing business strategy that helps increase profits and reduce turn-around rates. Always keep in mind a huge chunk of your business profits comes from existing customers. Failing to resell to your current customer base could result in lower profit and lower retention rates.

Bottom Line: Don’t let your customer go to your competitor.

4) Being Anti-Social…Media

Social Media can be like being at a cocktail party and having to talk to people you were avoiding for the past 20 years. But social media can also be like a cocktail party and having to talk to people that you have been missing for 20 years. Social media can be a great way for a company to get exposure. It is also a crucial component on how to boost your company site’s SEO. You can use lower-cost social media strategies and increase traffic to your website.

Bottom Line: Social Media is a great tool to increase customer acquisition and traffic to your website.

5) Aggressive email blasts

Email marketing is a great tool to build brand awareness and engage with your customers! But sometimes, it is easy to forget the importance of proper audience segmentation. Aggressive email blasts affect deliverability and increases the chances of customers putting your much important email in the dreaded folder…Spam.

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Got Capital offers responsible business financing products such as royalty-based investment, purchase of future receivables and merchant cash advance. These products are not short-term loans or consumer loans.